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You Are What You Sell

Posted by

Ian Brodie on April 1st, 2008.

You Are What You Sell Selling professional services has always been difficult.

The intangible nature of services means that potential clients cannot “touch and feel” or test the product before buying – so all the great benefits of the service can often be viewed as simply salesperson's claims rather than hard facts. Worse still: even if your services are unique, highly differentiated and of much higher quality than your competitors – what's to stop them claiming the same thing?

Traditionally, service companies have relied on testimonials, trials and guarantees to try to give customers something more tangible to judge their products by.

But very, very often customers use another key indicator – one that is often overlooked by the service provider.

They judge the service by the person selling it.

They don't just judge the salesperson as a human being or as a seller. They judge the salesperson as the living embodiment of the product.

If you're selling accountancy, legal, consulting or similar services then you're selling the “features and benefits” of the people who will be delivering the service. Maybe you're positioning your firm as leading edge or experts in their field – or highlighting your industry knowledge. Perhaps you stress your responsiveness and ability to partner with your clients. Or perhaps it's your efficiency. In every case, the qualities you stress will be qualities you claim your team will be able to deliver when hired.

How will your potential client judge whether your team really does have these qualities?

Well, if you're smart you'll make sure he is exposed to your delivery team during the selling process so he can see that they have the required skills and qualities.

But the person he will be exposed to most (and sometimes the only person he will be exposed to) will be the salesperson. Will he suspend his judgement, thinking “well, the salesperson won't be involved in delivering the work, so he can act differently to the rest of the team, he doesn't have to have the qualities I'm looking for”?

Of course not.

If your service promise is reliability and the salesperson turns up late to a meeting then the potential client won't believe your reliability claim.

If your service promise is expertise and leading edge thinking but your salesperson is a generalist without in-depth knowledge then he won't believe your expertise claim.

If your service promise is partnering, team-working and responsiveness and your salesperson is an irascible loner then he won't believe your partnering claim.

It's not fair – but it's human nature.

But how many professional service firms actively ensure that their salespeople reflect the values and the qualities that they position their delivery teams as having? And how many train and brief their salespeople so they are clear that this is what's expected of them. In reality – not many. Most focus only on their “pure” sales capabilities and are often very surprised when the salesperson with the best skills fails to deliver the goods.

And do you reflect the qualities of the services you're selling?

If not, you need to be. You are what you sell.

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Ask for that meeting – and grow your sales!

Posted by

Ian Brodie on March 12th, 2008.

Early in my career I learnt a very simple tactic which made a significant difference to my sales – and I noticed recently that I had stopped using it. So as well as restarting its use for myself, I thought I'd share it. It's most appropriate for consultants or other professionals who have to prepare proposals to sell what they do.

Here's the tactic: when someone asks you for a proposal, instead of meekly agreeing and heading off to do it; set a meeting date with them then and there to review it together.

Simple and obvious, and as old as the hills. But easily overlooked.

When you're in a sales meeting with a client and you've talked about what they need and what you can do and they pop the question: “can you write that up as a proposal for me?” – it's so, so easy to agree and to rush off to do the proposal just as they've asked.

Assuming doing a proposal is actually the right thing (often it isn't – often the problem itself requires further exploration with the client – but assuming it is); as we all know, our chances of selling something increase exponentially if we present the proposal personally rather than just sending it in.

However, calling after you've done the proposal to set up a meeting very often results in the client asking if you can just send the proposal in for them to read first – then they'll set a meeting if needed.

Of course, without you there, the proposal doesn't have the same impact, the meeting never happens, and the sale is lost.

But if you ask for the meeting then and there you're leveraging three things:

It's harder to turn someone down face to-face
You've built up a degree of rapport in the meeting
They've just asked you for a favour – so they're likely to reciprocate by agreeing to a meeting

It's an obvious and pretty easy thing to do – but very, very often it's not done.

There are many reasons for this. I've seen sales people simply forget in the heat of the moment. But more usually, there's an underlying fear preventing them asking. They fear that the client may say “no” – and then they'll lose the chance of proposing and of winning the sale.

But if a client is going to say “no” to a simple request like a meeting – how likely is it they're going to buy anything? In reality it's much better to get a “no” right now than it is to waste time on the proposal.

Another problem some salespeope have is that they put themselves in a servile position relative to the customer. They take the “customer is king” philosophy too far and feel that they must do just what the customer asks with no reciprocal obligations. They don't feel it's right to push for anything, but instead just jump through whatever hoops the customer asks them to jump through, hoping that they'll be rewarded with a sale.

That's not the right positioning for most sales – and certainly not for selling professional services where what the customer needs is a real business partner. A peer who can advise and guide them – not just do what they ask slavishly.

So next time you're asked to prepare a proposal, just take a deep breath, and say “sure, that would be great. Let's set a date for a meeting together to review it……”

Onward!

Ian

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Beating your #1 Competitor – the Status Quo

Posted by

Ian Brodie on February 22nd, 2008.

No, not the band, of course.

If you've read any of Stephan Schiffman's Sales Training books you'll know he believes the number one competitor of any sales person to be “The Status Quo”. In other words, rather than going with you or a competitor, the customer decides to do nothing. Either not buy, or stick with who they're currently got.

Paul McCord posted an excellent piece on this recently: Recognizing Your Biggest Competitor.

By the way, if someone knows how Paul manages to write so many high quality posts so frequently, please tell me!

I dropped a comment in on his blog, but I wanted to expand here, as I feel there's a side to this that isn't often explored.

Usually, when people talk about a customer deciding to do nothing, they recommended better qualification (to classify the customer as a tyre-kicker early on and not to waste time with them) or more aggressive closing techniques to push the customer into making their mind up.

But in my experience, the biggest reason why customers decide to do nothing in large sales situations is not because they're timewasters, or that they need to be pushed into action.

The issue is most often that they haven't been fully convinced that the value of what you're selling outweighs the cost for them.

It's not that you haven't talked about the business case for what you're selling, or shown how it meets the customer's needs. The problem is most often that you just haven't spent enough time fully exploring the customer's expressed needs and identifying the wider and deeper needs – and corresponding costs and impacts – that underlie it.

Typically what happens in a sales situation is that the minute we hear a customer express a need that our product can solve, we jump straight into “selling mode”. We talk about the benefits of the product, how it can solve their problem, and what the business case for doing that is.

But the problem is that by jumping straight to the solution we didn't allow the customer to fully discover how big their problem actually was.

It’s very common for customers to initially believe their problems are “annoying but not worth solving” (for example a computer system that’s difficult to use) – but then on deeper exploration to realise it’s causing them huge problems downstream (lost productivity, errors in customer records, bad customer service, etc.) which definitely are worth solving.

It's up to you to lead that further discussion. By using your experience of similar problems you can use questioning and examples to help the customer discover for themselves just how significant their problem is.

And so suddenly, the solution you then offer doesn't look so expensive after all. Suddenly its costs are far outweighed by the size of the problem it solves.

I’ve found this ability to “build up” the perception of a problem (not falsely – it’s all about helping the customer realise the true impact) is a key skill in large sales. Most professionals – and even trained sales people jump straight from hearing a need that their product can solve into selling the benefits of the product and trying to close.

They don’t spend nearly enough time exploring the problem itself and its impact with the customer.

But by doing this full exploration a salesperson can turn a “Status Quo” loss into a big win.

Onward!

Ian

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Selling With Stories – A Powerful Tool for Building Trust and Credibility

Posted by

Ian Brodie on February 4th, 2008.

The art of storytelling is dying.

We live in an age of soundbites, special effects, snappy comebacks and the 30-second attention span. It seems that no one is interested in taking the time to listen to, or tell a good story.

Yet think back to the last time you were truly moved by a film or play or TV show. When you last cried in the cinema or sat on the edge of your seat thoroughly gripped by a thriller.

Chances are that it wasn’t because of the special effects or any snappy dialogue. It most likely wasn’t even due to great acting – although that can help.

No, the reason you were truly engaged with the film or play was because of the plot. Because the author hooked you with an interesting story. And especially, because the author got you to really care about the characters in that story

Stories in Business Development

Now think about that example in the context of business development.

Don’t you want your clients and prospects to really engage with what you are saying? Don’t you want to grab their emotions rather than just their logical brain?

Of course, you will never build the same degree of emotional response in a sales meeting or pitch as in a thrilling drama. But you can certainly do a lot better than the majority of dry, dull sales presentations made today.

The secret, of course, is to use stories. And the most powerful stories to use are personal ones. Stories with real human protagonists rather than faceless corporations.

When you introduce your company, for example, don’t tell your prospects you can save them 10% on their telecoms costs, or that you’ve worked with the top 5 car manufacturers. Get that same message across in a personal story and it will have so much more power.

Contrast these two different introductions:

“We work with all the leading consumer goods companies. Our six-sigma and lean manufacturing services can save you at least 10% of your operating costs and cut 20% from your lead times”

and

“We recently worked with John Smith, the CEO of BigPack. John’s problem was that because of the long changeover times, his production was very inflexible and he couldn’t respond quickly to the needs of some of his best customers and so he was losing market share hand-over-fist. By working with us using our lean manufacturing and six sigma methodology, he was able to offer the sort of flexibility his customers were crying out for – and as an added bonus, he found that running costs were 10% lower than before.”

Admittedly, the second introduction is a few sentences longer – but those extra sentences – and the way the whole introduction is worded – make a world of difference.

Think about how you would respond to the introductions as a CEO of a Packaging company.

The first introduction is OK. The professional builds some credibility by highlighting that they work for the top companies in the industry. And the fast changeover times and 10% saving on running costs sound OK.

But there’s no emotion here. It’s cold, hard facts.

Worse: the “we could save you 10%” is almost a challenge.

The natural response of most people is to silently think “Oh you could, could you? Prove it”.

After all, it's our first meeting: what does he really know about my business? How does he know I’m not already highly efficient?

But by rephrasing into a story as in the second introduction we get over these problems.

Firstly, the prospect becomes more engaged when he hears someone’s name. You’ve indicated you work with executives just like them – perhaps even someone they look up to.

And when you use the word “frustrations” – not just a business problem, but real frustrations – then they begin to feel empathy towards that person. Chances are they’re feeling frustrations too – but like many executives, there are few outlets for them to vent those frustrations.

Now, by talking about someone else’s frustrations you’ve begun to create an environment where they can safely talk about their issues.

There's something really interesting that happens when you use a story too…

By using an interesting story where you happened to solve the client’s problem and save 10% of running costs, you’re not making a direct claim. You’re not risking a challenge because you’re talking about something that was done for someone else.

You’re not claiming you can save the prospect 10% – but they will begin to make that inference for themselves. They'll project themselves into the story as the hero.

So now they begin to think “hmmm, I wonder if they can make those savings for us?” instead of “well, he claims he can make those savings, but I’m not sure”.

Your story has allowed him to reach a conclusion for himself – and so he is much more likely to believe it than if you claim it yourself.

In similar vein, when you get a prospect or client talking and they tell you about some of the issues and challenges they are facing; you can use your stories to build credibility and confidence that you have experience in these areas and know how to help.

But notice that you’re not jumping to providing a solution for the client’s problem (where you run the risk of being wrong) – you’re relating a story about a client in a similar situation and what worked for them.

Again, the prospect thinks for himself: “Maybe this can work for me. And even if not, they were able to solve this guy’s similar issues – maybe they can find a different solution for me”. As opposed to their thinking if you try to suggest a solution to their problem: “How can they know how to solve my problem after 5 minutes? Do they think I’m some sort of idiot who hasn’t thought about this?…..”

Crafting a Compelling Story

Some people are great natural storytellers. They mentally record their experiences as stories and have no trouble recalling them in an interesting and entertaining way.

For the rest of us, it takes a little work.

What you need to have in your armoury is a set of compelling stories – perhaps 6 or 7 – covering a variety of situations where you, your products or your services have added significant value. You can then select from the stories as needed to fit the particular circumstances you think are going to be relevant and interesting to your prospect. And you can use the same story as an example as part of your introduction, your elevator speech, or in an expanded version when the prospect opens up and talks about a particular issue they have.

To craft the stories, first think about the typical problems your product or service solves. Then think of some recent examples of specific customers where this has happened.

Next, write a short paragraph summarising the example. A few guidelines should help here:

Make the story personal. Don’t just talk about a company, talk about a named individual who “owned” the problem your product & service solved. Your story will feel much more real – and your prospect will feel much more empathy towards a person rather than a corporation.

Talk first about the challenges the person faced. Again, try to describe them in personal terms so that the prospect builds a connection to your story. Don’t belittle the person – turn them into the hero of the story – they had a problem which (by working with you) they overcame.

Don’t spend a lot of time describing what you or your service actually did. Although this might seem interesting to you – it’s the least interesting aspect to your prospect. They’re much more interested in whether the problem you solved is similar to theirs, and what value or benefits did your solution bring.

Close with the benefits your product or service provided – but underplay this. Almost add it as an afterthought – as if the tremendous value you brought was just part of everyday business for you. Avoid boasting or self-aggrandising statements.

Write these examples up using natural, conversational language and revise them until they sound right. Then learn and practice their main points so that they don’t sound like a script.

And, of course, make sure you get the permission of anyone whose name you use.

Putting the Stories to Work

Armed with your stories you can begin to put them into action in sales situations. Don’t overuse them as you risk hogging the conversation when you should be listening. Instead, use them sparingly to spark the curiosity of the prospect, gain credibility, and provoke a reaction or question.

Personally, I use one story to introduce my company and what we focus on (selected based on what I think is likely to be of most relevance).

Then I may use further stories later on, to illustrate a point or to show that I understand their situation.

But I'll rarely use more than a couple in a sales meeting of an hour or less. To do so runs the risk of dominating the conversation and not giving the client enough space to open up about their problems.

And if they don’t talk about their specific problems, then I can’t begin to show them how I can help them.

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Postscript to Debunking the myths of non-verbal communication

Posted by

Ian Brodie on January 24th, 2008.

My post on debunking the myths of non-verbal communication has been picked up by a lot of google searches for “percentage non-verbal communication”, “what % of communication is non-verbal” and the like.

For those who haven't read the original article, have a look and you'll find that the often quoted figure of 93% is just pure hokum (well, it's an accurate figure for one very specific example taken repeatedly way out of context).

For those keen to understand what the “real” figures are for the percentage of communication that's non-verbal – have a think about it for a second.

Really, the question is meaningless.

What does “percentage of communication” actually mean? Do you mean the percentage of the actual message that was heard and understood? Or do you mean the percentage of intended emotion that got through? The concept of a “percentage of communication” is so oversimplified that it ceases to have meaning.

In addition, there are so many different types of communication that it's impossible to give a single figure or average that has any meaning. Even if you could figure out a “percentage of communication that was non-verbal” it would be so radically different for example, for a lecture on mathematics to an impassioned speech on third-world poverty that to give an overall figure would be misleading.

So here's my answer anyway:

Q: What percentage of communication is non-verbal?

A: More than most people think, but less than trainers in non-verbal communication would have you believe.

Onward!

Ian

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Debunking the myths of non-verbal communication

Posted by

Ian Brodie on January 9th, 2008.

93 Percent? 93% of communication is non-verbal. Everyone knows that.

I've lost track of the number of times I've heard this in sales training sessions or read it in books, articles and blogs. Sometimes the stats are qualified further, for example:

“One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication.”

The trouble is – it's not true.

Let's think about it for a minute – how can you possibly get 93% of the communication without the words? If you watch a foreign-language film, and watch the body language and listen to the vocal tones – can you really understand 93% of it? I certainly can't.

The truth is that the experiments at the source of this myth (carried out by researcher Albert Mehrabian in the 70's) were focused on some very specific areas of communication – namely the communication of feelings and attitudes – not communication in general.

As Mehrabian himself points out:

“Please note that this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e., like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable”

In addition, the construction of the experiments was not an accurate reflection of real-world communication conditions. In one of the central experiments, for example, participants were read out single words (either positive words like “thanks”, neutral like “maybe” or negative like “don't”) in either positive, negative or neutral voices. In another, the words were combined with photographs of people looking positive, negative or neutral.

Participants had to judge whether the words were positive, negative or neutral based on the combined word/tone or word/picture combinations – which is where the statistics came from. It highlighted how the tone of voice or the facial expression often overrode the meaning of the word when it came to conveying a positive or negative feeling.

Of course, in the real world, we typically don't communicate in single words. And we're typically not just trying to communicate feelings either. But what has happened is that these important – but limited – findings from the experiments have been taken out of context, repeated, misunderstood, repeated, confused, etc. – up to the point where “93% of communication is non-verbal” has become accepted as reality.

So what does this mean for sales people?

Well, there's no doubting that non-verbal communication is important – but don't take the 93% rule too seriously. The words you use really are vitally important – they're the core of your communication.

Your non-verbals serve mainly to support what you're saying by conveying your feelings – your passion, your empathy, your truthfulness. How do you make sure your non-verbals provide the right support?

Well, critically – don't fake it. Despite what some trainers may try to convince you of, it really is almost impossible to try to “technique” your way through body-language. Non-verbal communication is so complex – too complex to try to act out or replicate – yet most people are really good at reading it, so they will pick up any fakery very quickly. Instead – make sure you really believe in what you are saying – and the correct non-verbal communication will follow naturally.

And of course, if you find yourself on a training course, or reading an article, and you read the phrase “93% of communication is non-verbal” – then think twice about the credibility of the trainer or author. They haven't done their homework properly on this – so what else have they skimped on?

Onward!

Ian

Postcript: Further thoughts on this myth

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Making it easy for customers to say "yes". How to make cross-selling work.

Posted by

Ian Brodie on December 21st, 2007.

Fries “Would you like fries with that?”

Some say those are the six most profitable words in business. And cross-selling can indeed ramp up the profitability of your sales.

Yet at the same time, clumsy cross-selling attempts can turn-off customers in no-time and leave a sour taste that damages customer retention.

So when does cross-selling work – and what are the most effective cross-selling strategies?

In my experience, the first secret behind an effective cross or up-sell is that cross-selling works when it's actually helpful to the customer. When it makes the customer aware of valuable or useful options they didn't know they had (or in the case of “would you like fries” – when they had forgotten or overlooked the option). When the salesperson or server is genuinely thinking about what might be useful to the customer – then the cross-sell will be seen more positively.

As I posted in In Praise of Passion, everyone's BS detector is set to max nowadays – and a mechanistic, pre-programmed, corporately mandated script will be seen through in an instant.

So why does “would you like fries with that?” work? It's the same pre-programmed script in every outlet. Well, in this case, there's no pretense about the cross-sell. There's no fake sincerity in the simple six words. Just a reminder that you've got the option of fries.

And it takes advantage of the second secret of the effective cross-sell (in fact it's one of the secrets of all sales): they've made it easy to say yes. There's no complex choice to work through, no expensive options to evaluate. Just a yes or no to something you knew you wanted anyway.

In Malcom Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking he highlights an experiment where researchers wanted to examine the impact of breadth of choice on decision-making.

They set out two booths showcasing different types of jam. One with 6 selections, the other with 24. Conventional economic wisdom says that the more choices customers have, the more likely they are to buy, because it is easier for them to find the product that perfectly fits their needs. But the researchers found the opposite to be true. 30% of those who stopped by the 6 choice booth ended up buying some jam, while only 3% of those who stopped by the 24 choice booth bought anything.

Contrary to economic theory, in the real world too much choice paralysed their decision-making. In particular, because the effort involved in making the choice was far greater than justified by the payoff (a better jam is hardly a life-changing decision).

The same applies when cross-or up-selling – particularly for a small, simple sale. Make it simple for the customer to say yes and don't over-complicate with too many choices.

Case in point: I regularly stop by for a coffee in my local Caffe Nero (a kind of UK Starbucks with more of an Italian flavour). Historically, whenever I've bought a coffee they've always asked “would you like a cake or muffin with that?”. And I've always said no. Too much choice. I've never had enough energy to think through what exactly I might want. But recently, they've started tailoring the cross-sell – and making it more specific.

Last time in I was asked if I'd like a Raspberry and Vanilla Chocolate muffin – the time before that it was some Passion-cake. It was far easier for me to say yes to that proposition. Nothing too deep to consider and weigh up. Just would I like one or not (and I have to admit, I succumbed to the passion-cake). And by tailoring each offer they're showing some genuine (albeit small) concern for me rather than just trotting out the corporate script.

Onward!

Ian

Disclosure: I've included an amazon affiliate link for Gladwell's book Blink. Hell, someone might as well make some money if you really want to buy it. In reality, I didn't think it was that great. Some interesting examples – but no real clarity on when the instant “blink” assessment was accurate and when more reflective thought worked better. I found both Freakonomics and The Undercover Economistboth more interesting and useful. (Hey – did you see the way I sneaked a couple more affiliate links in there – much more of this and be able to sell my own “how to make money blogging” programme to an unsuspecting world.

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In Praise of Passion

Posted by

Ian Brodie on December 17th, 2007.

Passion The stereotype many people have of salespeople is of an amoral hired gun. A sharp suited, sharp talking huckster who doesn't care what he's peddling as long as it brings in the money.

But in reality, the opposite is true of all truly successful salespeople: they have a real passion and belief in the products and services they sell. And this is even more true for professional services where the person doing the selling is usually the person who will deliver or oversee the service. After all, if you can't get passionate about what you do – how can you expect a client to do so.

In my 15 years as a consultant I've worked with and observed hundreds of business developers in action. I've seen very different selling styles and cultures, and helped salespeople from countries as diverse as Iran, the US, Lebanon, Algeria, Finland, Spain, Panama and Japan.

Yet across all these countries and cultures, the very best salespeople share a real passion in the quality of their products and services and a sincere belief that their customers will genuinely benefit from using them. And I've witnessed that passion overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to win a sale, or protect an account from an undercutting competitor.

We live in a cynical world today, with everyone's BS detector constantly set on max. And it doesn't matter how many body language or NLP courses you've been on; if you aren't being sincere – if you don't really believe in your products with a passion; then your customers will pick this up in an instant.

Winston Churchill said it best: “Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe”.

Churchill knew the power of passion and belief. And we saw the power of his belief in his great speeches which convinced and mobilised a nation at its time of greatest need.

How can we build this same level of passion in ourselves and in our professionals?

First, we need to make sure that the professionals we hire are capable of being passionate. Emotion is often frowned upon in business – and especially in the supposedly “rational” professions such as law and engineering. But without emotion – and the strength of character to express it; we cannot communicate our passion. We need to hire people able to maturely express their emotions. Not just to wear their heart on their sleeve; but to be able to convince with passion.

Next we need to make sure we incubate belief in our services amongst our professionals and business developers. Don't just train them in the technicalities of the service and in its features and benefits. Really show them what the service can do for our customers – what an impact it can have on their lives and their businesses. Use case studies and examples in training.

Better still, take the salespeople and professionals out to “spend a day in the life” of their customers – they will benefit immeasurably. And make sure they keep talking to customers over time about the impact of the work they do for them. Not just the cold, hard financial impact – but what they personally get from the service in their own words.

Finally, make sure your partners and managers “walk the talk” too – and really support the passion of your people.

All too often it's seen as “cool” to be ultra-hip and cynical. Yet this cynicism can kill the passion of the team. They'll become embarrassed to talk about how great they believe the service is to their peers.

They'll figure that maybe being cynical is the way to success in this organisation. And pretty soon they'll become the cynical, smooth operators that customers hate.

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Selling is simple, isn’t it?

Posted by

Ian Brodie on December 4th, 2007.

Selling is simple.

Just like golf is simple and sculpture is simple. You just put the ball in the hole, or chip away all the stone that isn’t your subject.

Selling is simple in concept – but difficult in practice. And often, under pressure to deliver our numbers this quarter or in the heat of the moment trying to close that deal we’ve been chasing for months, we forget the simple things that actually lie at the core of sales excellence.

In my work with clients I often find that returning to the basics – the simple core of excellent sales – can often lead to a great leap in performance.

And in my experience, the basics of selling can be simplified into two essentials – what I call “Twin Track Selling”. In essence, these are to establish with potential customers:

That they have a need for the benefits your product or service can deliver – a need big enough to justify paying the price you’re charging for the product.
That they trust that your product, service or people can really deliver the benefits you claim – and do so better than your competitors.

That’s all you need really. Establish the need, and build the trust. Simple in concept, but immensely difficult in practice.

When we work to establish needs, typically we jump too fast at the first hint of a need and try to close immediately.

Sure, the customer said he wanted a more reliable car, or a more usable sales management system. But is that initial, surface need going to be enough when you start pitching how great your £20,000 car or £100,000 CRM system is? Probably not.

Most likely the customer hasn’t fully thought through their needs and doesn’t realise just how much that unreliable car or the unusable sales management system is really costing them. They haven’t considered the risk of their wife being left stranded at the side of a motorway if the car breaks down, or the impact of the system on sales-force productivity and morale – and hence on sales.

As a result, your product looks awfully expensive compared to their perception of a relatively minor problem. So they’re uncertain when you push for the sale – and despite your attempts to steamroller their “objections”, you usually end up in the nightmare “I’m not really ready to buy yet – but I promise to keep you in mind in future” scenario.

Or perhaps the customer does understand the value of what you’re offering to them – but the sale just seems to be drifting away over time. You keep telling the customer about the benefits of your product – but even thought they agree with your business case projections they just seem unwilling to commit.

While it’s tempting to write them off as tyre-kickers; often the problem goes much deeper. Often the issue is that you just haven’t proven to them that your product really can deliver the wonderful benefits you’re claiming.

In this increasingly sceptical world, they won’t just take your word for it. And all your competitors have equally glowing testimonials in their literature. Building a high degree of trust with your customer is crucial – not just personal trust, but trust that your product, your services and your people really can deliver.

It takes time – and thoughtful planning to build up a sufficient level of trust to allow the customer to buy with confidence that the benefits they’re looking fo really are going to be delivered by your product.

Often when you’re in a rut or you have a sales pursuit you’re really struggling with, it’s tempting to turn to a flavour of the month solution – a new closing technique, a clever elevator pitch or other techniques.

But in reality, you’re far better off investing your time going back to basics and really thinking through, for this situation – how can I help my customer understand their real needs? And how can I prove that my product really does meet those needs?

It’s only by doing this, and tailoring it uniquely for each sales situation, that you can put yourself firmly on the track of Sales Excellence.

Onward!

Ian

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